Everytime You Shop at Best Buy, a Kitten Dies

Ok, so that doesn't really happen, but some of you wouldn't come here if I just said "Don't Shop at Best Buy!" But it does make me feel as sad as if a kitten died when I stand in a Best Buy and listen to some of the terrible mis-truths/misconceptions that their employees give to customers. I will make this brief. This is a situation I found that happened to someone today over at Reddit. I've edited the language slightly:

This morning I went to Best Buy to buy some Christmas gifts and witnessed Best Buy at its best, trying to rip off a clueless buyer:

Clueless Buyer trying to pay for a brand new PS3

• Cashier: "Do you want the extended warranty from Best Buy?"
• Clueless Buyer: "Well, I dunno.."
• Cashier: "Let me explain you. The PS3 comes with 8 cells and the Sony warranty only covers two, so if any of the other six malfunction is going to cost you a lot of money to repair your console but with the extended warranty from Best Buy you get full coverage and after a year we will perform a tune up to make your system run like it's new." <- completely false & just dumb
• Clueless Buyer: "Ok"
• Cashier: "Are you going to connect your console to the internet?"
• Clueless Buyer: "Actually I'm buying this as a christmas present so I don't really know."
• Cashier: "That's ok, because if you buy the in-home gaming setup for just $100 (more or less) you can call us any day you want and we will go to your house to set your internet account, update the console, etc..." 

At that point I decided to intervene and asked the clueless buyer for who was the gift and it turn out to be for his fifteen year old son, I told him that probably his son already knew how to do everything Best Buy was trying to scam him into and if not he could give me a call to guide him through it step by step.

I saved the gentleman a couple hundred dollars and then received the silent treatment from the cashier when he was attending me. Shame on you Best Buy.

It's situations like this that happen everyday to naive customers at Best Buy. People get duped into paying for something completely useless. Which brings me to a big point about Best Buy's extended warranties...NEVER BUY THEM! They are overpriced and usually have lots of stipulations, not to mention the BB employees usually mislead you about what the manufacturer themselves cover (as seen above). Using the above scenario...that guy would have paid $60+ for an extended warranty on his PS3, while you can get a better warranty from Square Trade for about 40% less ($39). Square Trade warranties cover much more and last 3 years vs. 1 year. Square Trade will give you a warranty on any type of electronics device. I strongly encourage you to use Square Trade vs. your cell phone company insurance plan on smart phones...much cheaper and usually there's no deductible. Ok, that's my spill on Best Buy's attempts to upsell you a million useless things when checking out. Just keep saying no as you checkout, that's the best option if you must shop there.

You can stop reading now, or if you want, I can tell you a few more reasons why Best Buy is a pretty low on the respectability list when it comes to business practices:

• Geek Squad-I am not saying this just because I compete with them, but these guys are typically considered the joke of the tech world when it comes to computer repairs. These are not some computer genius guys like you want to believe, they are regular John Doe's like you & me that needed a job, filled out an application, and got a hired...your 15 year old nephew can probably do just as good of a job, otherwise take it to a local shop or even a technically inclined friend, anywhere besides Geek Squad (or Staples for that matter, similar scenario). Most of the time, they just wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows and say it's fixed...usually with disregard to your stuff (music, pictures, documents, etc).  That is not repairing a computer, that is taking the easy way out to get the job done as fast as possible with as little brain usage as possible. And they are super expensive. You pay a lot of money for less than average service. Also, don't even let them 'optimize' your computer if you choose to buy one there-it's expensive and does nothing to make it faster, usually quite the opposite...they just install more software to slow it down significantly.
• Prices-seriously, compare Best Buy with most retailers. Usually they have to have a HUGE sale just to match the everyday prices at Amazon, New Egg, etc. I understand some people are willing to pay more to have it right then and that's your prerogative, but when things like TV's and computers can cost hundreds more, you should really shop around. Also note-Best Buy is worried about all these smartphone users coming into their stores using these price comparison apps (like I mentioned in my previous post), mainly because it lets people see how much Best Buy is price gouging on most of their products (my source if you don't believe me).

Ok, my rants over now. Thanks for listening.